On the 4th day of the 3d month, Okamoto and Soma, the two principal officers in the late Regent’s service, went to the Gorochiu with the following letter: “Our master, Kamong no kami, went out yesterday to go to the castle to pay his respects. When about half-way between his house and the gate of the castle, several miscreants fell upon him and killed him. We have certain information that these assassins were servants of Mito and Satsuma. Yesterday all the officers say to us, ‘Wait a little.’ But this business cannot wait. We wish to know for what reason these men killed our master. There are, at the present moment, some of these men secreted in the houses of Wakisaka and Hossokawa--two Daimios. We wish to see them, and ascertain from themselves why they killed our master. We desire that these men may be delivered up to us. All the people of Hikonay [the Regent’s territory] wish this, and we trust you will take pity on them and grant their desire.” To this letter the Gorochiu affixed as answer: “Cannot do so.” The following letter was addressed to the Shiogoon by the son and servants of the late Regent on the day of the murder. It was written to ascertain whether the law of Japan would be acted upon in their case, by which the territory of any officer who had been assassinated is confiscated. “3d day, 3d month.--Ee Kamong no kami, when going to the castle to-day, and when near the Sakurada gate, was attacked by a number of villains. At the time, so much snow was falling as to make it impossible to see a yard before one. All the servants of Ee are enraged. There were but few Ronins and many servants, and they ought to have overpowered the Ronins. The servants are deeply shamed when they think of Ee nawo massa (the first of the family in the time of Iyeyas). Whatever is to become of us we care not; but the retainers and friends of Ee wish to know whether the house is, according to the old laws of the empire, to be reduced in rank and impoverished, or if it is to be entirely degraded and removed from the territory. We wish to understand clearly.” This was written in the name of the young Ee; and was probably written with the view of preparing to defend themselves and party by an appeal to arms rather than by submission. The Shiogoon answered to this: “All your father’s territory I restore to you his son.” Here terminates the native account of the assassination. It gives some insight into the working of the government, and the unscrupulous means to which the highest magnates of the land will resort to attain their ends. From the general tenor of the statements, the extreme hatred of one party in Japan to foreign intercourse is brought out, and the slight which the Emperor considered to have been put upon him by the conclusion of the treaty without his consent and against his expressed opinion.